Fish Recipe: It’s Not All Southern-Fried

Farmed Catfish, photo by USDAThe fish dinners I grew up with were all fried, sometimes deep-fried filets of bass and sunfish (yum!) and sometimes pan-fried, cornmeal-crusted chunks of catfish, both caught in the Cumberland River by an uncle or a cousin. Mother always had to hide her chagrin when my cousin showed up with a huge river catfish. Yes, it was free meat, but catfish are bottom feeders, so a Cumberland River catfish tasted strongly of diesel fuel.

Nowadays I only get fried catfish when I go back to Tennessee to visit. It’s farm-raised, so the taste is light and fresh. I learned to love fish over the years prepared a lot of different ways. Recently I experimented with some fish filets. The end result was very easy and very good, two of my criteria for cooking. Here’s the result.

Salsa Verde Fish Filets

1 1/2 lbs. halibut, cod, catfish or other white fish filets

1/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup salsa verde or tomatillo sauce (i.e., green salsa)

1/2 cup sliced black olives

3-4 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Fresh ground black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 13″ x 9″ baking dish with vegetable oil or grease with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Place fish filets in a single layer in the dish. Sprinkle with salt and top with salsa verde.

Bake uncovered 20 -30 minutes or more until fish is done (flakes easily with a fork). Garnish with olives and cilantro.